Saturday, March 26, 2011

This morning was as crazy a Shabbat morning as they come. By 7:15 AM I had retrieved all the children from their beds and schlepped them back to the Big Bed, changed three diapers andthree little bottoms were clamoring for the same space in the crook of my arm. At 7:30 my phone chirped that it had a text message for me. I rolled my eyes and wondered who was trying to communicate with me at this ungodly hour. A few minutes later, the ringtone reserved for my sister answered the question.
"Good morning, Auntie Al," I slurred, ducking away from a chocolate donut the baby was trying to shove into my mouth.
"I have a massage appointment today, but I'd rather sit home and cuddle with the dog. And I have to go to Wal-Mart. You can take it if you want."
"Let me think about it," I said, watching the melee unfold before me.
Two hours later, I had to start getting dressed if I was going to make it to the appointment. "Should I go?"
"Yeah, hon, go." My husband's face was calm amidst a storm of flying toys and screaming children that would unsettle most adults. I raised an eyebrow at him. "No, seriously, go. I'm fine."

An hour later, I was undressed and sandwhiched between two giant electric blankets on a massage table. Renee told me she was going to do a lot of stretching and deep-tissue massage, and instructed me to let her know if she was massaging too hard.
"I don't think that'll be a problem." I informed her. "Just...could you dim the lights? And do you mind if I listen to this audiobook?"
I spent the next hour being blissfully man(woman?)handled and listening to Shiver in the warm darkness. It is hard to say who I love most today: my sister, my husband, Maggie, or Renee. They all conspired to make me relax and they WON.

I spent the rest of the day ducking flying toys and random foodstuffs and the serving as the choicest seat in the house once again. After the massage, though, I had a much better attitude about it all. I even managed to tap out something substantial while juggling the little gremlins sweeties. (See?)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I half-moved two weeks ago. From Kansas to Ohio (yay!) but still an hour west of my final destination while we wait for our house to open up. So we're staying with my parents (sort of boo!) for the meantime. My husband is staying in our city of destination (BOO!) which means I am even more completely responsible for the three rugrats than I normally am. I've also been trying to scout out some gainful employment in our new-old town, and that's been taking up a lot of time and even more psychic energy.

I'm sorry to say that I have failed the Project 365 for writing, but only for a couple of days. For my own sake, I'm going to pretend that they didn't happen. I'm exhaustedly typing a few words here and there on my phone, and that's fine.

Today I wrote 79 words. And that's kind of a lot these days.

The next few weeks are looking clearer (knock wood) and I'm hoping to get back to this on a daily basis. If you're still out there, thanks for reading.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

We are moving this week. Movers are coming to our house on Wednesday, and they will pack all our things and put them in boxes and drive them somewhere where they will sit on a truck until May when our house is available. We will pack all the stuff we need until then, our three children, and ourselves, into a car and drive from Kansas to Ohio.

To say the least, I have a lot to do. So, naturally, I spent today writing almost 2000 words. And playing around on wordle.net.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Oh, yeah. I'm still here. I've still been writing every day, though I won't lie - sometimes it was a pretty sketchy sentence via Evernote on my phone . I kid you not, one day it was three words.

We are moving house a week from today. We found out my husband got a job offer in Ohio, back home, so we're going. Things are insane. I am beyond exhausted. We are so excited.

In trying to flesh out these characters, I'm thinking more and more about their growth curve, and what their next steps will be. I've written a pretty powerful scene, full of indecision mixed in with contentment mixed in with fear, but I'm pretty sure it belongs in the next book in the series.

I know, I need to finish the first draft of the first book first. Then edit it, tear it apart, turn it inside out, give it to twelve beta readers, then edit it five more times before I even think about showing it to anyone else. But what could I say? I couldn't help it, so it's tucked safely away for book #2. If that ever comes.